Wednesday 23 February 2011

My new idol: Meekyoung Shin

Those of you who bothered to read the tiny "about me" paragraph at the side of this page would have noticed that I am a ceramic design student. So, naturally, something like this is of interest to me:

Ghost series- blue (2010)

I mean, come on, they're beautiful! Those curves, that high shine finish, the flawless proportion! But what makes them more amazing is this: all of those vases are made out of SOAP.

And so was this:

Crouching Aphrodite (2002)

Meekyoung Shin is a 43 year old artist from Korea, who started sculpting in soap 15 years ago  when she came to Slade School of Fine Art in London. She creates some of her pieces by making a mould of an original ceramic piece and then casting soap, and others by carving out of large chunks of the stuff.

There is a collection of her work, labelled "Translation" currently showing at the Haunch of Venison Gallery, until the 2nd of April and admission is free, so I'll post some trip photos if I get a chance to go.

I think I may have found another face for the favourite artist wall! Credit to the Evening Standard for introducing me to her work.

Tuesday 22 February 2011

Howling Pig Smelly Soap- Sandalwood

I had this soap reviewed weeks ago, I swear! Then I left my camera at my parents' house 20 miles away and didn't get it back until lunchtime today and felt I couldn't post a post without the pics :(



This was, yet again, a Seattle soap I got as a present back in November. Despite being called Smelly Soap, it wasn't stinking out my underwear drawer when I stumbled upon it, so I'd pretty much forgotten about it.

Price- $5.00 for 4.5oz which is about £2.80 for 130gr. You can buy it from the Howling Pig website.

First Look- the bar was a shimmering rusty copper colour, which reminded me a lot of a metallic crayon I used to have. It was packaged in plastic with a paper label while the bar itself was embossed with the company's pig logo. Now, I'm not big on pigs. They're alright. I think I'm still a bit traumatised from my gap year when I raised and butchered one. Pig PTSD.

Dry Feel- surprisingly heavy, but melted in my hand and was fairly easy to dent.


Smell- dry the smell was underwhelming, I expected it to stink. The sandlewood was layered over a soapy base and while it avoided smelling too hippy-ish (despite the patchouli), I felt it was a very masculine scent that wasn't really relaxing or invigorating. It clung to me for a fairly long time after my shower.

As a body soap- as I thought it would, it melted fairly easily, producing a light silky foam which made it very difficult to keep hold of! The foam built up over time on bare skin, and afterwards my skin felt fairly balanced if a little dry.
As a hand soap- this is what I'm using it as full time now. I didn't really get on with the scent, but I like it as a bathroom hand soap and feel it would be good in the kitchen too.
As a face soap- fairly drying, felt a little harsh.


Overall- I'd like to try this soap in other scents (the ginger lilly sounds like it was made for me), because in general I liked this soap, just not the scent. The soap base itself felt very cleansing after a workout and I think would work great as a summer soap to shed off the sweat and city pollution at the end of the day. However, this sandalwood scent was just not right for me; it felt too masculine. It's welcome to stay in my bathroom and look after my hands.